If you don't have photoshop or thumbmaking software.
 

i was reading the photoshop 6 post and i know alot of people can't afford to buy it. I have photoshop but i rarely use it to make thumbs because it takes so long to launch and i can't do as much multi-tasking when it's running.

I usually use a piece of free ware from http://www.tucows.com/ called irfran view.i use irfran view's batch conversion to make thumbs. i just make them 100 pix in width and i don't bother cropping it square. just takes twice as long if i crop but you can do it if you want. on an 800x600 page you can fit 7 thumbs across without distortion. then i batch convert the files to 50% with 256 colors. i can also batch convert the names of my thumbs so that i don't have to rename each thumb by hand.

it's a great piece of freeware and it doesn't use alot of system resources so you can run other apps at the same time. it's also good pictureviewer.

Thx bro, i needed something besides photoshop too, my slow 450 cant handle much of it.

Here is the direct link to this program for those who dont wanna search: http://tucows.ds.net/preview/693.html

I have posted this somewhere else on this board, but I am currently developing my own thumb making proggy, since I am sick and tired of all the other programs out there. They either cost a lot of money and they have 100 features that we dont use, or they convert the thumbs to some shit quality. Anyway, my program is almost finished now. Take a look at http://www.henrikh.com/ThumbX.jpg - Tell me what you think. I am using my program now, and it only takes about 10-20 seconds to select a gallery dir, auto-rename all the files to fit my templates and then make thumbs of every picture. Best of all is that the executable is about 50k in size so all you out there without the monster computers will really enjoy this piece of software. Look at the picture. It shows most of the features in the program, and let me know what you think. I need some suggestions to what features it needs.

looks great so far henrik...i definately want a copy when you finish it up. simple layout, and it doesnt appear to have a ton of useless features.

I agree it looks nice and simple. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

I don't anything about building programs.
What or how do you start to build a program like that?

A few years ago I also didn't know what HTML was, but now that's all I do. So, I'm willing to learn how to build small programs.

Help me understand:
"proggy" means 'small program'

Or does "Proggy" mean something else?

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Proggy just means program. It's usually just used on "one use" prog's like a thumb converter or similar, but you could call something like Office 2000 a proggy too.

I've come a long way now. The program is fully funktional now. The only thing that I can think of that the program could use, is a feature that lets the user decide the resolution of the thumbs. So far it converts them to X*130 or 130*X to preserve the aspect of the picture. It seems that some people think that thumbs should be no bigger than 100 pixels on either side, while others think that 100 pixels is too small. What do you guys think ? Should the user be able to set the thumbs resolution or is it irrelevant ?

you gotta have a batch rename function. renaming everything by hand is a bitch.

is there any way to make a picture crop automatically to preserve the aspect ratio without distorting the picture?

I do have a batch rename funktion and it works really well. You define the filename it self (example: "img") and the suffix (example: "jpg") and then select a dir and hit "auto-rename". The program will rename every file in the dir to img01.jpg, img02.jpg etc.

It also preserves the aspect of the original picture so nothing will get distorted.

I'll try to get the last few bugs straitened out within the next few days, and then it should be ready for the public.

Redshoe: About how to make small programs. You have to choose which language you want to program in. I suggest using C++ or Visual Basic, but it's a personal preference. If you are really curious about learning how to program, look for some tutorial sites about Visual Basic or C++ or buy a book for beginners. Sams publishing http://www.mcp.com/sams/ - has some really good books to get you started on C++, Visual C++, Visual Basic, Java, ASP, XML and a whole lot more.

BTW: If anyone has questions/comments or suggestions about my thumb program, feel free to contact me on Icq# 4787439 - I am always looking for advice on how to make it better.

Henrik, thumb resolution is very important.
People use different thumb sizes all the time.

Peace,
Pete Dogg

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The one thing I see is not being able to batch rename with just adding a t on the end of the thumb. Some of our sponsors don't allow renames except in that way. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

Pete: I am already working on implementing a feature that lets you choose your thumb resolusion. I am thinking about letting it work so that you only type one number, and then it scales the thumb to preserve the aspect. So for example if the number is 130 a picture of 549*819 will generate a thumb of 87*130 and the aspect will be perfect.

Gemini: I am not exactly sure what you mean. If the picture's name is "img01.jpg" you want to be able to create a thumb named "img01t.jpg" ?

Long night for us. I couldn't sleep so I didn't make that very clear eh? http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif Umm say a pic is named Smg341.jpg, we name the thumbs that get produced Smg341t.jpg. Mind now I only watch him work with photoshop with this. It makes all sorts of extra directories for images, pages and thumbnails. He hates the extra gallery dealing on link work etc. So he renames the thumbs like the main images like above Smg341t.jpg.
That way the directories can be done away with. Specially since the pages for each pic aren't allowed on tgps. Thats why he started making his own gallery templates and just adds the links in for the main image and thumbnail etc. Even doing so much by hand a gallery shouldn't take 20 minutes to do. He could just be getting his old speed back.

He did gals a few years ago and barely could make the old html writers work but he got quick with all sorts of tricks. But those darn thumb names being batched to add the t in the file name would be great.

Don't know how your prog works but batch renaming pics to all the same file names for use in galleries isn't allowed by some sponsors. They are the only ones legally allowed to totally rename a pic, not webmasters. I'm getting this fogged up again so I'll quit now. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/wink.gif

on irfran view go to batch rename and write the name with xxx for the number of digits you want to use and it'll convert everything automatically. for emaple imgxxxt so the picture will go img001t img002t, img003t... etc etc.

just download the freeware it saves me alot of time when i make galleries. after you use it you'll kick yourself for wasting so much time doing it by hand.

I guess i could make it work like that too. So that you have to write the filename with X'es as wildcards, so it will replace the X'es with numbers like InfranView. I'll keep it like is for now, and when it gets released, you can try it and see if you like it or not. If people dislikes something, i will change it.

Sounds like a plan for now. Should be easy to adapt the code to add that type of feature. Specially since he was sitting here looking just as baffled at how I tried to explain it to ya here!

Main thing is leaving the image names virgin as they started. We'll look first and I'll have him talk to you then! http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/wink.gif

I made a small "demonstration" page, that should hopefully shed some light on how my program works. Take a look at http://www.henrikh.com/ThumbExpress.html and let me know what you think. Your opinion matters a lot, since this program is primarily made for adult webmasters.

Good news to those of you who got interested. The program is finished, and as soon as I have made an installable version and found a place to host it, It'll be available for all of you. I hope that you will give it a try and give me some constructive feedback. I must admit I am very curious about how it will be received. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif